The blog for Leveltek International LLC: Stretching Metals with New Technology

Risk Management Key to Successful Steel Import

According to the board of the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), steel importers must focus on providing more and better risk management options to customers. The board emphasized the need for these services in the face of stronger competition from foreign suppliers.

The American Metals Market (AMM) recetly hosted a roundtable in New York, called the Steel Success Strategies XXVIII, where the AIIS offered its remarks. It further stated that big businesses are going away, and being replaced with a very different environment, with less mills and a much more cautious buyer market. Shipping materials to customers as quickly as possible can only do so much, as market prices can rise and fall dramatically in a number of days, much less a number of weeks, by which time inventory shipped from abroad could be priced too high or too low.

In order to help customers feel more comfortable while they wait for materials, the AIIS stresses the necessity of having a solid risk management strategy in place. John D. Foster, chairman of the AIIS, led the discussion, directed by AMM.

The bottom line, he says, is that the steel industry is undergoing a metamorphosis, and buyers and sellers alike must adapt to these changes in order to have a successful and profitable relationship in the future.